The Rhubarb Fool

I’ve been researching Danish food over the past couple of weeks in readiness for a forthcoming special occasion and yesterday decided to try out a recipe for the charmingly named dessert “Peasant girl with veil”. In its original form, it’s layers of stewed apple, whipped cream and fried breadcrumbs arranged in decorative layers in a glass bowl. It’s a really simple and effective formula that ends up tasting a bit like a deconstructed cheesecake.

I decided to serve up my version in small glasses and decorate the layers with edible flowers to pretty it up and make it suitable for a party.

I lightened up the whipped cream by combining it with Greek yoghurt, pepped up the stewed apple with spices and Calvados and replaced the fried breadcrumbs with one of my guilty pleasures, crushed HobNob biscuits (for non-UK readers, these are an oat-crunch type biscuit made by UK manufacturer McVities).

To make the layering-up of the dessert more precise, I spooned the stewed apple and the cream into separate piping bags which worked a treat. Next time I make this I’m going to make sure the apple purée is really smooth to make the piping easier, and I won’t make the top layer of biscuit crumbs so thick as they showered everywhere when we dug our spoons in!

These tasted good yesterday after dinner and equally good 24 hours later straight from the refrigerator.

Peasant girl with veil

My version of this classic Scandinavian dessert claimed as their own by both the Danes and the Norwegians.

Serves 12 dainty portions or 8 more substantial ones.

Ingredients

For the apple purée

3 Bramley apples, peeled, cored and cut into rough slices
6 tablespoons golden caster sugar (or to taste)
2 tablespoons water (if required)
1-2 teaspoons mixed spice
1-2 tablespoons Calvados

For the cream

150ml whipping cream
170g Greek yoghurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons icing sugar

To assemble

8 Hobnob (oat crunch) biscuits, crushed to fine crumbs (about 120g crumbs)
fresh or dried edible flowers (optional)

Begin by making the apple purée. Combine the prepared apple, sugar and mixed spice in a medium heavy-based saucepan. Cover and place over a gentle heat, stirring regularly to dissolve the sugar and make sure the mixture doesn’t stick and burn. Add the 2 tablespoons of water if the mixture seems to dry. Cook the mixture gently for about 15 minutes, stirring the apples vigorously with a wooden spoon so that they “fall” ie become a thick puree.

If you’re going for a dainty presentation involving piping the purée into small glasses then you need to cool it then run it through a food processor to remove any lumps that would otherwise clog your piping nozzle. Set aside and chill.

Now prepare the cream. Combine the cream with half of the icing sugar and vanilla extract and whip to the very soft peak stage. In a separate bowl, beat the Greek yoghurt with the rest of the icing sugar and vanilla extract. Now carefully combine the two mixtures by folding one into the other.

You are now ready to assemble the dessert. The layering-up is made very straightforward if the apple purée and cream are decanted into disposable piping bags each fitted with a 1cm nozzle.

Spoon or pipe a layer apple purée into the bottom of each serving glass or bowl. Top with a layer of cream, again piped or spooned as you prefer. Now spoon over a thick layer of crumbs. Repeat the process to fill the glasses but keep the top layer of crumbs very thin otherwise they scatter everywhere when you dig in with a spoon. If liked, decorate the top of each dessert glass with a piped blob of the cream and one or two edible flowers. Enjoy straightaway or cover and keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve.